A multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communications system is a system that can transmit and receive data between at least one base station and at least one subscriber station. Since each base station and each subscriber station includes a plurality of antennas, the MIMO scheme makes it possible to improve the efficiency of transmitting and receiving data.
A codebook based pre-coding MIMO can provide significant spectral efficiency gain in the downlink closed-loop MIMO. In the IEEE 802.16e and 3GPP LTE standards, a four transmitter (4 TX) antenna limited feedback based closed-loop MIMO configuration is supported. In IEEE 802.16m and 3GPP LTE Advanced standards, in order to provide peak spectral efficiency, an eight transmitter (8 TX) antenna configuration is proposed as a prominent preceding closed loop MIMO downlink system.
There are several requirements for a codebook. The codebook is designed based on the complexity and the performance for the 4 TX single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO). The basic assumption of the codebook design was for uncorrelated channel. In the real communication environment, the uncorrelated channel implies that the antennas are spaced at least a half wavelength (0.5λ) at the subscriber station and the antennas are spaced at least ten wavelengths (10λ) at the base station. Given the whole array dimension (usually we assume 10 wavelengths), each transmit antenna is likely to be correlated. Thus, the baseline of the codebook design often is for correlated array.
In the 3GPP LTE standard, a 4 TX codebook is generated based on a Householder reflection given the same dimensional 16 generating vectors. Therefore, a large memory size to store 64 elements of the generating vectors is required. The Householder reflection provides a four by four (4×4) unitary matrix with constant modulus property. However, the four-dimensional Householder reflection is a special case where the constant modulus property is preserved. In the other dimension, the constant modulus property of the Householder reflection is broken. Since the Constant modulus is the strongest requirement for the system, Householder reflection is not an appropriate approach for designing codebooks including other dimensions.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved method and apparatus for constructing Constant Modulus codebook. In particular, there is a need for a Constant Modulus codebook that is capable of being utilized in MIMO systems including four or more transmitters.